North Korea's Nuclear Site Is Getting Busy Again

By Adam Clark Estes

February 21, 2013

New satellite images of the nuclear test site in North Korea shows an uptick in activity for the first time since the country's third nuclear test on February 12, stirring fears that a fourth test is imminent. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University spotted the renewed activity on February 15 and just told the world about it on Wednesday. According to the AFP, however, the think tank "cautioned that there was not enough evidence to assert that a new test was in the works." It's certainly not evidence that a fourth test isn't in the works, either. In fact, it seems sort of imminent based on what we know about the North Korea's ambitions and the country's recent conversations with China. Three days ago, Pyongyang reportedly told Beijing that it's prepared for a fourth and even fifth nuclear test.

Who knows what the North Koreans are doing at that nuclear site. Maybe they're just cleaning up after the last test. Five kiloton nuclear bombs do make a heck of a mess, after all. Or maybe they're just stoking the fires of fear that the last test lit. Or maybe they are preparing for a fourth test. Wait, are we even sure that they did a third nuclear test? It's really hard to tell, because North Korea's gotten really really good at keeping its nuclear activities under a tight lid.